Having enjoyed The Hazel Wood, I was intrigued by Our Crooked Hearts. And this has to be my favorite of the two! With a mother/daughter relationship, I can reliably be charmed. So I had high hopes for Our Crooked Hearts! Keep reading this book review for my full thoughts.
Summary
THE SUBURBS, RIGHT NOW . . .
Seventeen-year-old Ivy’s summer break kicks off with an accident, a punishment, and a mystery: a stranger whose appearance in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, heralds a string of increasingly unsettling events. As the days pass, Ivy grapples with eerie offerings, corroded memories, and a secret she’s always known—that there’s more to her mother than meets the eye.
THE CITY, BACK THEN . . .
Dana has always been perceptive. And the summer she turns sixteen, with the help of her best friend and an ambitious older girl, her gifts bloom into a heady fling with the supernatural, set in a city of magical possibilities and secret mystics. As the trio’s aspirations darken, they find themselves speeding toward a violent breaking point.
Years after it began, Ivy and Dana’s shared story will come down to a reckoning among a daughter, a mother, and the dark forces they never should’ve messed with.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
From the beginning, something seems eerily wrong in Our Crooked Hearts. And this atmosphere of witchcraft and sacrifice only builds. But my favorite element has to be the mother/daughter relationship. There’s this gap between mothers and daughters, between who we think they are and the past behind their eyes. Because how much do we really know about our parents? The lives of those around us? Our Crooked Hearts examines not only this gap, but the ways in which their lives are similar.
How when we get a look at their past, their trauma, their secrets, we begin to understand what was previously mystery. Our Crooked Hearts is also about someone who tumbles into our life and sets it on fire. Becoming something consuming, burning, and invigorating. The ways someone can change our life so completely in both good and bad ways. If you love books in which magic touches our lives without knowing, you have to read Our Crooked Hearts.
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When we have to reconcile not only the wonder and potential, the brightness, but also the danger in its attraction. Very quickly I fell into Our Crooked Hearts. Into the mystery of her past and the ways these two POVs and timelines begin to weave together. It proves that the past is never truly dead, never gone, it can still haunt us. If you love a story about unchecked power, the danger of ambition, but also about the power of the truth and love, read Our Crooked Hearts. Find Our Crooked Hearts on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org & The Book Depository.